Project World School

About the Project

The Project World School vision is to create temporary learning communities throughout the world as an international resource for teens and young adults to engage and participate in immersive learning communities.

Each retreat focuses on a specific theme related to each of the host countries. The project’s learning communities merge immersive learning experiences with personal and social development, focusing on global citizenship, cultural sensitivity, and developing relationships through exploring ethics and conflict resolution.

Participants both lead and follow in an atmosphere of dynamic co-creation and immersive discovery. Each day builds upon the last, with every exploration leading the group in uncharted directions. However, this is not a typical study abroad program. Project World School utilizes the power of a learning community to produce a project driven by goals, knowledge acquisition, and changes in global perspective.

Context and Issue

Homeschoolers, unschoolers, and democratic schoolers throughout the world are the result of families choosing to opt out of the current school system, a system that may not suit the needs of many families and students. Home education as an alternative is a viable choice for many learners. However, social learning may be the greatest aspect overlooked by alternative learners. This project offers month-long international retreats that engage social learning in the form of temporary intentional learning communities.

Solution and Impact

Although each retreat takes place in a different country and offers distinctly different activities based on that retreat’s focus, every learning community focuses on three areas of learning:

(1) Social and Interpersonal Development

Every community dedicates part of its day to reflecting as a group. Activities have been developed to encourage viewing the world through a different lens, trying on new perspectives, and experiencing a global point of view that extends beyond the personal self.

Creating a safe and encouraging environment to grow on a personal level is one of the cornerstones of the Project World School philosophy. Challenging activities have been designed to encourage each participant to step outside of his or her comfort zone.

True to the unschooling philosophy, life is not broken down into subjects. However, each retreat has been built surrounding a main theme, guided by the host country and environment. It takes a multidisciplinary approach, usually combining two or more areas of focus: for example, examining the astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere while exploring the mythology and history guiding intricate belief systems. All academic studies are immersive and experiential and are designed to be participatory.

Although each retreat has specific activities, general areas of focus are:
• sciences
• history
• humanities
• language

Future Developments

For the 2015-2016 season, Project World School will be organizing retreats in Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala and Argentina.

Join the Discussion

2 comments

Tatyana Oleinik

(sorry, it's problem for editing) We're interested in partnership, especially, in digital literacy of prospective teachers (in pre-service education in Ukraine) as a part of innovative (social responsible creative) higher education based on ICT and critical thinking development

Join the Discussion

2 comments

Tatyana Oleinik

(sorry, it's problem for editing) We're interested in partnership, especially, in digital literacy of prospective teachers (in pre-service education in Ukraine) as a part of innovative (social responsible creative) higher education based on ICT and critical thinking development